Understanding the nature and evolution of economics in Portugal since the 1980s to the present, and, in particular, how the Portuguese research interact with other loci of scientific economics production, implies a special focus on the postgraduate teaching programmes in economics at Portuguese universities, its evolution and the main factors that influenced the strategies pursued.

It is intended to give an account of a large number of postgraduate courses that have emerged in Portuguese universities, both at doctoral and master’s level, of its main objectives, contents, bibliography, the dominant research methodologies, of the relationship between postgraduate training and an increasing scientific capacity and of how postgraduate training at Portuguese universities is articulated, both at national and international level, with postgraduate training in other universities. Is postgraduate training at certain universities, both national and international, taken as a benchmarking to be held? Is postgraduate training supply more closely related to the dynamics of the Portuguese scientific production and of its community of economists or, otherwise, follows more closely the dynamics of student demand and of the evolution of labour market?  Are postgraduate training programmes in economics committed with a principle of theoretical, epistemological and methodological pluralism or, on contrary, do we assist to an increasing specialization and standardization both at the level of contents and of the dominant research methodologies? Is it unanimous that postgraduate training programmes in economics are defined by a certain core of subjects?

The role of institutional arrangements and of its dynamics relevant to postgraduate training will be highlighted - Bologna process in higher education, the assessment and accreditation procedures of higher education institutions and their study cycles by an Assessment and Accreditation Agency for Higher Education, the evolution of funding at level of Doctoral scholarships, … The main aim of this analysis of postgraduate programs is to provide important cues on what one can expect to be the main trends of the research in economics in the near future.